University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


' 


SADAKICHI  HARTMANN 
TANKA  AND  HAIKAI 

Japanese  Rhythms 


AUTHOR'S  EDITION 
SAN    FRANCISCO,    1916 


ME  r  T  uaRAfn 


Published  previously  in 
The  Reader,  The  Stylus, 
and  Bruno's  Chap  Books. 

Edition      limited      to      200 
copies. 

Copyrighted,     1916, 
By     Sadakichi     Hartmann 


TANKA  I. 

WINTER  ?     Spring  ?     Who  knows  ? 
White  buds  from  the  plumtrees  wing 
And  mingle  with  the  snows. 
No  blue  skies  these  flowers  bring, 
Yet  their  fragrance  augurs  Spring. 


The  Tanka  (short  poem)  is  the  most  popular  and  char- 
acteristic of  the  various  forms  of  Japanese  poetry.  It  con- 
sists of  five  lines  of  5,  7,  5,  7,  and  7  syllables — 3  1  syllables 
in  all.  The  addition  of  the  rhyme  is  original  with  the 
author. 


TANKA  II. 

,  were  the  white  waves, 
Far  on  the  glimmering  sea 
That  the  moonshine  laves, 
Dream  flowers  drifting  to  me, — 
I  would  cull  them,  love,  for  thee. 


TANKA  HI. 

MOON,  somnolent,  white, 
Mirrored  in  a  waveless  sea, 
What  fickle  mood  of  night 
Urged  thee  from  heaven  to  flee 
And  live  in  the  dawnlit  sea? 


TANKA  IV. 

LIKE  mist  on  the  lees, 
Fall  gently,  oh  rain  of  Spring 
On  the  orange  trees 
That  to  Ume's  casement  cling — 
Perchance,  she'll  hear  the  love-bird  sing. 


TANKA  V. 

THOUGH  love  has  grown  cold 
The  woods  are  bright  with  flowers, 
Why  not  as  of  old 
Go  to  the  wildwood  bowers 
And  dream  of — bygone  hours! 


TANKA  VI. 

r*T*ELL,  what  name  beseems 
•*•     These  vain  and  wandering  days! 
Like  the  bark  of  dreams 
That  from  souls  at  daybreak  strays 
They  are  lost  on  trackless  ways. 


TANKA  VII. 

OH.  climb  to  my  lips, 
Frail  muse  of  the  amber  wine! 
Joy  to  him  who  sips 
Cups  of  fragrant  sake  wine 
Flowing  from  some  fount  divine. 


TANKA  VIII. 

IF  pleasures  be  mine 
As  aeons  and  aeons  roll  by, 
Why  should  I  repine 
That  under  some  future  sky 
I  may  live  as  butterfly  ? 


TANKA  IX. 

WERE  we  able  to  tell 
When  old  age  would  come  our  way, 
We  would  muffle  the  bell, 
Lock  the  door  and  go  away — 
Let  him  call  some  other  day. 


HAIKAI  I. 

WHITE  petals  afloat 
On  a  winding  woodland  str 
What  else  is  life's  dream! 


The  Haikai  is  a  Tanka  minus  the  concluding  fourteen 
syllables.  It  was  favored  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Fre- 
quently it  is  purely  poetical  and  the  association  of  thought 
produced  too  vague  to  be  conveyed  in  English  with  such 
exaggerated  brevity. 


HAIKAIIII. 

A  T  new  moon  we  met! 
**•  Two  weeks  I've  waited  in  vain. 
To-night! — Don't  forget 


HAIKAI  IV. 

,  red  maple  leaves, 
There  seem  more  of  you  these  eves 
Than  ever  grew  on  trees. 


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